Dan Slott has been telling everyone who will listen for months now that Amazing Spider-Man #698 will be a milestone in the Wall-Crawler’s life. That retailers have not ordered enough of this momentous issue and it will be talked about for months to come.

Well, I’ve read the book and he’s right about one thing: It’s sure to be talked about.

Many of you may have seen the book (or the leaked page) prior to this page, but I will speak in generic enough terms that if you haven’t read Amazing Spider-Man #698, you won’t have the “event” spoiled for you.

I will say this about the issue, it was very fast. So fast in fact that it took me a couple of reads to realize what had happened had actually happened. Once I did, I pored over every inch of that page looking for some kind of clue as to why or how, but there wasn’t anything that stuck out. Which is either laying the groundwork for a great mystery, or glossing over the moment that the hype machine has been working to promote.

It’s also a great issue for people to jump into. The book spends a decent (not too much, not too little) amount of time re-capping Peter Parker’s status quo and highlighting a few of the more major events from Slott’s run on the title. It’s a good book for someone to pick up and just dive into. I don’t know if that will help or hinder a reader’s enjoyment of what happens to Spider-Man, but I’m sure we will be hearing about that on message boards… well, I’m sure it’s already happened actually.

A friend of mine who reviews movies often refers to certain films as “Refrigerator Movies.” By that he means that the full scope of the movie doesn’t really hit you until later that night after you’ve gotten home after the movie and you’re standing in front of the icebox looking for a snack. Sometimes time to sink in reveals the real depth of a story and maybe after there’s been some breathing room between Amazing Spider-Man #700 and Superior Spider-Man #1 we’ll see the full scope of the story.

All in all, I don’t know if ASM #698 is actually the massive moment that Slott had been hyping up, but it’s an interesting move. It has the potential for some really bad things to happen to our hero and the story of how he comes back from all this (if he does at all) has all the benchmarks to be a good one. With Amazing Spider-Man #700 (the “final” issue) coming in December, I guess we’ll know soon enough if our ending comes true for Peter & Otto.

One thing is for certain though. Marvel made it through a “big reveal” without spoiling their own story in USA Today or the New York Post. That little victory in itself is something to be celebrated.

With Sohmer off in LA supervising the voice work on the Least I Could Do pilot, today’s page was written by Ariadne MacGillivray and myself with art from the talented Ivan Aryana:

Ivan Anaya is a comic book artist from El Salvador. Ivan graduated from University in Argentina in comic book design about 4 years ago and since then he has been drawing comics for small publishers. Then, then thanks to Jim Zub, Ivan had the chance to be published in a Skullkickers “Tavern Tales” issue from Image Comics. Currently, Ivan is finishing a Brazilian graphic novel call “Lost Kids” to be released in 2013.

Have a great week, friends! See you back here for some more art on Monday!